META 2020 3 - 22 August Mon - Fri 10am - 4.30pm; Sat 12 - 2.30pm Gallery Central 12 Aberdeen Street, Perth, www.gallerycentral.com.au Showcasing innovative and exciting creative works completed by year 11 and 12 students enrolled in Visual Art and Design courses, META complements North Metro TAFE’s prestigious art and design programs and acknowledges the excellence and originality of budding artist/designers in senior secondary schools across WA. Jessica Abreu Applecross Senior High School Year 11 More Than Comfort Digital Animation with elements of charcoal, photography, and watercolour This animation that was largely made through Adobe Pho- toshop. The animation shows a character walking through rooms, all drawn with different mediums while she’s strictly drawn digitally. I used digital art, charcoal, photography, and watercolours to create each unique setting and combine them. The main idea I wanted to convey was stepping out of com- fort. I aimed to take the audience on a journey with a char- acter who starts in a place of comfort, catches a glimpse of something more and pushes through uncertainty to get there. Kristian Almario Thornlie Senior High School Year 12 Behind Schedule Acrylic on paper I live in an extremely stressful time as a year 12 student who aims to go to university, with unstable circumstances for the 2020 Aus- tralian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) because of COVID-19. I need to manage my schedule of work and adjust the time accord- ing to this fluctuating situation. I feel we have lived in a war situ- ation. I depict myself in this painting as one who is trying hard to manage this harsh and difficult times. I use monotones in black and white to depict my feelings. The artwork has been inspired by artist Salvador Dali. Willow Armitstaed John Curtin College of the Arts Year 12 Florid Becoming wire, textiles, beads, string, ink, This work represents an acceptance of the earth and natural cycles. Fungi exists almost outside of life, and serves to decompose. The work presents a need for humanity or the self to let go and start anew. Florid: having a red or flushed complexion, excessively intricate or elaborate. Caitlin Bailey Kohl Branch St Stephen’s School, Duncraig Year 11 Lake Joondalup Baptist College Year 12 Menace Company Promotional Poster Geometric Tea Digital Print porcelain clay My poster promotes Menace Company and their campaign “Menace to My work is inspired and based on the ancient Japanese art of Neri- Normality”. I used the approach of shock by disjointing the main image komi; hand building clay forms from layers of coloured clay. I’ve used and filling the space with other, unrelated images to give it a collage this technique with geometric shapes, to help convey the sense of feel. The collaged photos include my own lifestyle photography as well ritual, which is methodical and timed, involved in the ancient tra- as aspects of nature (a tiger’s eye, the ocean, leaves, etc.). The collage dition of tea drinking in Japanese culture. The abstract geometric elements are coming out of the model’s head and the model herself is shapes add a more masculine and robust feeling to the gentle art of disjointed to further ‘shock’ audiences. tea drinking, showing how traditions can evolve and develop greater inclusivity. Lexi Branch Ashton Bain St Mark’s Anglican Community School Year 12 St Marks Anglican Community School Year 11 Rot Slip Sliding Away paper clay, papier mache, acrylic paint Clay sculpture My artwork portrays the relationship between humans and nature, and My work focuses on Identity. We often feel defined by everyone else’s how all living things live and die. The figure has long, scruffy hair and expectations of us. Do we ever really get to decide how we want to untidy stubble, suggesting nature is wild and untameable. His eyes are be perceived? The star sign Pisces was a starting point for my work, shadowed, making him less individual and more representative of many defined as the most misunderstood sign of the zodiac and often seen human beings. The brown, earthy tones represent the earth and the dirt, as sensitive and obsessive, yet caring and loving. The splitting of the and the animal skull on the subject’s head is a symbol for the inevitability Piscean fish in my work reflects the emotional slipping of one’s resolve of death and decay. The twisted, rough, branch-like horns represent plants and the ecosystem. The sculp- in having to meet the expectations of others. ture is made from the clay medium, which is made from the earth. Jessica Bryan Jonathon Ball Governor Stirling Senior High School Year 12 Helena College Senior School Year 12 A Teenage Facade Powerful but Gentle Photograph Bleach on card This portrait communicates the whirlwind of emotions that are attached I visited a nature reserve in the south of Sri Lanka. I was lucky enough to being a teenager, and the need we often feel to hide them. The red to witness these magnificent animals in the wild. I was able to see the shadow represents frustration and anger, slowly creeping within the gentle baby elephants and wonder how those small creatures could model, despite her best attempts to shut these emotions off with her grow to become such beautiful and powerful animals. blank, expressionless face. In this work I used different strengths of bleach to change the pigment of black card. This allowed me to reverse shade the painting. Sean Cameron Applecross Senior High School Year 12 Oh To Be Opened Clare Bowen Graphite on paper Pinjarra Senior High School Year 12 Through my piece, I wished to discuss my experience of being gay and the Vertebrae 1, 2 & 3 fears of coming out. The term ‘oh to be opened’ largely representing the idea Photography of releasing all my pent up fears and emotions and showing myself for who My series had to be associated with the theme ‘The Body”. I got I really am. I constructed myself to appear somewhat ‘mutated’ through the the inspiration from Miguel Ribeiro’s medical photographs. I liked placement of eyes on my face to discuss how unnatural and ‘out of the ordinary’ I used to feel due to my how his images made me cringe and feel uncomfortable, which is sexuality. I used graphite pencils to reference my past work as a lot of my fears of coming out surrounded the response I wanted to create, but at the same time, make them been seen different by my peers or my family; thus, I wished to demonstrate how I am the same person as look beautiful. My model was quite lean making it easier to define before. Through biblical references such as the halo, as well as my hand placement, I am able to discuss the his skeletal structures. In post-production, I removed certain fea- period of my life in which I first saw a difference between myself and the other people around me and my tures of his body to create an abstract shape, converted the images somewhat religious background. Although my religious peers have never openly criticised me, the harmful to black and white to emphasize and exaggerate the bones in each ideologies particular religions can promote surrounding the LGBT+ community had left a stain on myself image. and my identity. However, I’ve become proud of who I am - an idea I aimed to promote through this piece. Blair Cargill Abbey Cooke Prendiville Catholic College Year 12 St Hilda’s Anglican School For Girls Year 11 Do You See Me? Is this what I’ve become; a piece of meat? fused glass disc on timber/metal stand oil pastels on acrylic paper The ocelli on peacock’s feathers (colourful eye spots) have disappeared My composition communicates the concept of ‘opposites’ represent- and reappeared several times over the course of history. It is suspected ed by the juxtaposition of two contrasting objects to convey a point that the changes were a response to interest from the ladies (peahens). of view. The somewhat repulsive sheep carcass was placed on an I sympathise with the poor peacock who has to constantly put on a antique lounge that symbolises beauty, creating two opposing visual show. images. I placed the carcass in the traditional pose of the ‘reclining nude’ to interrogate the objectifying of women. Audiences today mostly see the traditional western art historical convention of the re- Alyssa Carrello clining nude presenting women as vulnerable and the object of men’s Corpus Christi College Year 12 desires. My work suggests that women continue to be treated ‘like Isolation pieces of meat’ and appreciated simply for their bodies. Silkscreen ‘Isolation’ was influenced by my connection with a skate park in Fremantle. I would often go there to escape the pressure of being a teenager. Initially I Brielle Counsel wanted my artwork to communicate the reflective nature of isolation, but St Mary’s Anglican Girls School Year 11 over the last few months the message has taken on a different meaning Deus Ex Machina of the word ‘Isolation’. During COVID 19 I was isolated from a place and MDF, recycled materials, metal, wire, drink cans & old maps space that offered my escape. The somber mood is further amplified with My title is a Latin phrase that translates to ‘a God from the machine’. My the use of blues contributing to this dislocation and loneliness. artwork is a commentary on our relationship between what is manmade (machines) and what is natural, with particular focus on the clearing of our natural bushland to make way for houses and industry.